Entry 370 - The Dangers of Patriarchy

10/1/20

I think men are used to benefiting from an already unequal system that benefits men more than it does women because of the religion that was first built off of a patriarchal system. A patriarchal system is set up in such a way to give men more precedented power in jobs, family, and so forth because it’s rooted in one sex having more precedence than the other simply by the system that was set up and chained into religions that supported the inequality of sexes.

For example, many old religions were highly patriarchal, placing men above women and reducing women to property of men. Women were oftentimes reduced to objects that were bought from their parents and could be returned if things didn’t go as planned. Women had fewer rights than men and were oftentimes less protected than men. If women rebelled against the inequality, they were either stoned, punished, or done away with by the religion. There was no acceptance by these patriarchal religions for an egalitarian system because that would potentially derail the plans of mass genocide, conquering, and acquiring land.

With the female energy suppressed, it was extremely easy to convince men to kill in the name of God because, through the religion, they were trained to think dualistically. If they saw a whole nation as disobedient to their God, and that religion was far removed from and not in touch with their female energy, it was easier for them to kill. That’s also why I believe animal sacrifice had to become a norm in many old religions because it helped desensitize the men to murder with animals, so that when they were “commanded by God” to murder humans as a sacrifice to God, they were much more willing to commit such a heinous act.

It also explains why women were barred from priestly service in many religions. Many women could potentially stand up for the animals and people because they were still very much in touch with their empathetic and female energy and, with enough power, would stand up against the corruption and murder that was supposedly commanded by a loving God.  

Isn’t it interesting how an equal and egalitarian God, who is perfectly balanced in His masculine and feminine energies, supposedly created a patriarchal society that is by its very nature unequal and commanded mass murder as punishment that did not meet the standards of God?

Is it not also ironic that the Catholics and millions of other Christians, throughout thousands of years of their religion’s existence, deemed people as heretics and unrighteous before convincing the followers of that religion to murder them in the name of God as a sacrifice?  

Not only does a patriarchal system benefit men in jobs, family, and so forth, but the way it paints women in relation to men is absolutely horrifying. There are verses in the Bible that state a woman’s purpose in life is to please her husband, as if she is a commodity to be used rather than another equal human being, free to live life as a man would. 

To make matters worse, treating women like property and seeing them as being created for the pleasure of men has allowed these ideas to seep into our society, fueling a section of pornography that objectifies women as sex objects and our modern rap songs that hyper-sexualize the female body, which also subconsciously causes men to predominantly view them as objects for their pleasure, not equals to them in society. Then, subconsciously, men all throughout these patriarchal systems have less self-control than women in public and subconsciously see them as sex objects of pleasure rather than humans who deserve respect and to be seen as more than just their private parts.

Men then command women, especially within their patriarchal religions, to cover up because “the women are causing the men to sin by seeing their bodies.” So women are forced in these religions and societies to hide their bodies in fluffy dresses that take away their hyper-sexualized bodies, and many times their whole entire body and face. Meanwhile, men are given a pass because women don’t have the same problem that men have from thousands of years of objectifying and hyper-sexualizing women. Isn’t it ironic that women have more self-control than men, even though they both have private parts?

But because of the patriarchal system, men, not being objectified or treated as property and so forth, have no need to cover up because women don’t normally partake in that behavior, as the system isn’t set up in their favor to do so. If it were matriarchal, within that inequality, there is the potential for that to happen, and that’s why egalitarianism is the best because it demands equality for all. Although it wouldn’t hurt for the oppressors to feel their oppression to be able to sympathize with the women they have objectified most of their lives, with them regaining their access to their female energy, they will be able to sympathize, and society can work towards equality sooner.

This isn't just a problem within fundamental religions. The problem seeps deep into our society and what we promote through listening, watching, and sharing. In certain songs, especially rap, women are extremely sexualized rather than praised for their intelligence, abilities, and so forth, and these songs are played in such a way that people who listen to them while they’re relaxed and in a theta brain wave subconsciously download that information, subconsciously hyper-sexualizing women whenever they are given the chance, if they're not aware of it. 

This is why we see, over and over again, women in news, politics, and everywhere else, so much more sexualized than men. In our culture, modern songs, and influences from the patriarchal system, women are subliminally seen as commodities to please their husbands, unequal to men because of the patriarchal system, and as sex objects because of certain rap songs that hyper-sexualize women.

I think a way to combat this distortion and inequality among the sexes caused by religion is to recognize that it isn’t conducive for our country to have an imbalance between the sexes. It puts women at a major disadvantage to men and promotes the idea to men that women are less because the system makes it so. I think in Congress and every major board of directors within our government, there should be an equal number of men and women on the board. 

I also believe religion and state should be separated so that people don’t justify patriarchy by a religion that once did. I also believe there needs to be major accountability on both sides, and people need to be called out for inappropriate talk that demonizes, judges, discriminates, or normalizes hyper-sexualization.